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Oh yes, it’s crock pot season! The husband is a master of the crock pot and always manages to work up meals that blend perfectly together in that steamy cauldron of good cooking. It’s funny, crock pot meals never tend to look all that appealing, but you can be sure my mouth was watering for the last two hours of cooking because the whole house smelled amazing! Starting with a base of apple cider from our local orchard, husband added a Pork Loin Roast to the pot and topped that with cabbage, apples, onions, a little maple syrup, salt and pepper, and a little dried mustard powder. Such easy prep for such amazing results. By the end of the six hours, the pork had become incredibly tender, the cabbage simmered down, and the apple cider had infused its way into everything. Add to that a little bread (not entirely local, but from a local bakery), a chunk of cheese, and some delicious Hopped Blueberry Mead from a Meadery in New Hampshire, and we had a great fall dinner.

Husband is back home and went for a simple but delicious favorite this week – Sausage and peppers! The farmer’s market has seen a glut of peppers, so we went with it, using some tomatoes from our garden along with pork sausage and some homemade sourdough bread. Topped off with a cool glass of crisp, tart cider and we had ourselves a great meal. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a quick and easy meal that always goes over well.

Another meal cooked by the husband. How can you tell he’s cooking? There’s beef on the plate. It’s just not my thing, but it is husband’s thing, and he’s learned to cook beef just the way I like it (VERY VERY well done) so I’ll eat it when he’s around to cook. This week, he found a neat coffee chocolate spice rub at the market which really changed the flavor. I do find a HUGE difference between grass-fed from the market and non-specific beef from the grocery store, so that makes it a little more palatable. I’d still prefer chicken or turkey or pork over beef any day! Anyway, getting on with things, we have corn fritters again, made with the same pickled peppers that I had canned summers prior. They’re really becoming a house favorite, and we’ve even been putting them on the grill for an extra crisp crust on the outside. In the back, there’s canteloupe, then a slice of Soltane bread topped with Tomme Mole. The bread isn’t locally sourced, but it is locally made, so we’ll allow a little leeway here since it’s SO good. The bowl in the back has cucumbers and tomatoes with some onions, oil, and vinegar. I could easily eat the whole container we made of that, they were so good. To drink, there’s a beer from Armstrong Ales, a local brewery. So, everything (even the not-completely-local items) was sourced very locally and made for a great meal in some great weather outside!

Another meal by the husband. It’s the time of year that he makes at least one pot of soup per week, and there are no complaints from me! The only thing not really local is the bread – it was baked locally, but the ingredients aren’t local (but it does go very well with the soup). The soup turned out great – the cabbage was still just a little crunchy and not completely wilted down to mush. The husband has a real knack for knowing what ingredients work together in a soup, and this was no exception. The soup bone had a bunch of meat on it, more than we expected, so that was a nice surprise. The whole thing turned out great and made for a perfect lunch on a chilly day.

This one is pretty basic, but sometimes something simple is all you need. Plus, I’d gathered about 8 green peppers from our two plants in the garden and this seemed like the best idea, especially after I found the FrankenOnion at the farmer’s market. Seriously, the biggest onion I’ve ever, ever seen. Add in some yummy bison sausage, and folks, we have a meal. Minimal cooking and prep time, and it was just perfect.